Curse of the Full Moon
by NocturneAngel
Summary: Remus was now getting to his feet - all four of them - and he was no longer human. Rising to a grotesque imitation of a man’s way to stand, the huge wolf chewed the air with long fangs and.. Set during the marauders days. T-rated for lots of wounds. OC's.
1. Chapter 1

Jasmine came down the stairs from the girls' dormitories to find an almost empty Common Room, but for a pale Remus sitting in one of the armchairs by the fireplace

Jasmine came down the stairs from the girls' dormitories to find an almost empty Common Room, but for a pale Remus sitting in one of the armchairs by the fireplace. She folded the collar of her warm sweater over her neck and chin as she walked up to him and carefully touched his shoulder.

Remus jerked as if she'd threatened him, and Jasmine took a step backwards, the little giggle that slipped her being both surprised and guilty.

"Sorry, Remus, did I scare you?"

He turned around, twisting his neck into an uncomfortable position, looked at her for a second and then turned back to the fire.

"Yes. Yes, you did", he said, also laughing a little, but the answer slipped Jasmine, as she, shocked, stared at his neck as if she could catch a glimpse of his face just by looking intensely at its backside.

"Remus", she said softly, walking around the armchair and sitting down beside him. He was not only pale, she could tell now as she'd gotten closer, but he had rings under his eyes, dark like bruises, and marks around his mouth as if he'd bitten himself. On his throat he had a scar that seemed so tender Jasmine came to the conclusion that it must've been healed just this day, and Remus's hands looked sore.

When she looked at him, he turned away, as if he could hide everything that cried out that something was wrong by hiding his face.

"Remus, has something happened?" She leaned forwards in her chair, a concerned look on her face, and the tune of her voice made him look at her.

His eyes were all red, as if he hadn't got any sleep for several days, and this made Jasmine even more worried.

Remus shook his head and looked down at his hands again.

"Nothing special", he said in a low voice. "I haven't slept very much the last nights, and then an experiment went wrong - probably because I was so tired."

Jasmine tilted her head to the side, in a gesture reminding quite a lot of one Sirius often did.

"What kind of experiment?"

He smiled, raising a hand almost completely blue from bruises to push some hair from his face.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you, but it included a great number of explosions, and a bookshelf collapsing and spilling all the books over my hands."

Jasmine smiled and shook her head. The story weren't very convincing, but if he lied to her, he should have a good reason to; and she didn't make a fuss about it. Remus had helped her too much for her to push it and force him to tell.

"Okay", she just said, brushing her hand through his hair in a friendly way before she leaned back in the chair. As usual, Jasmine pulled her legs up into the armchair and folded her arms, half hugging herself and Remus turned against her, leaning to the elbow on the arm rest.

"So how are you doing nowadays?" he asked in his usual soft voice. The unspoken question was if the Slytherins in Jasmine's year and the year over them still harassed her, and the honest answer was yes.

"It's quite fine", she answered, nodding a little. "Of course it's better now, during the winter vacation, when almost no one is here."

"Yes, I'm surprised you didn't go home. I thought your parents…"

Jasmine shook her head.

"They're in Brazil", she said. "They haven't had a vacation on their own since I was born, so I told them to go away somewhere for Christmas. Then I could experience a Christmas on Hogwarts as well."

"And get a part of both worlds", Remus said, adding her usual argument for it having benefits being of mixed blood.

Jasmine laughed softly.

"Yes, of course", she said, but then she grew quiet and her smile faded. "It's a little lonely, though. All the girls from my year went home, and so did most of the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws. The Slytherins don't talk to me, so they aren't of much use. There is almost no one from my year left. Just a few Ravenclaw boys whom I don't know."

Remus smiled and shook his head.

"That's bad", he said, "but you've got me, Sirius and James. Peter's with his family, but Pad and Prongs didn't want… they decided they wanted to make use of their last year here on Hogwarts, so they stayed."

"Oh, right, this is your last year. You know what you want to be after school?"

Again, Remus shook his head, but this time as an answer in the negative.

"No, I actually have no idea. It's hard, since I've only got half a year to go now, but I think I'll come up with something."

"What about a teacher?" Jasmine proposed, "Or a welfare officer? You would do great as that."

"A welfare officer, you say." He made an exaggeratedly surprised face, and caused her to laugh. "I haven't thought of that, actually. Remus shrugged his shoulders. "Perhaps. The future will tell."

Jasmine smiled, and they both went silent, keeping each other company without talking.

Outside, the day faded into twilight and when some pale beams of moonlight slipped through the curtains in a strange angle, Jasmine rose and walked over to the window.

"The moon is rising", she said, more to herself than to Remus and felt her lips curl into a soft smile as a perfect, orange circle rose slowly over the dark horizon. "Oh, that's beautiful", she said, hearing Remus turning to her in the armchair, "it's full again. That's the third night in a row."

Jasmine watched the moon as it climbed the last stretch to show completely. "I don't understand that", she said, turning towards Remus. "How can it be… Remus, what's wrong?"

He hadn't turned to her at all, but curled forwards with his arms pressed against his stomach and chest, gasping for air. She could see sweat drops appear on his forehead and neck, and his face showed an expression of restrained pain.

"Pad! Prongs!" He called in a half choked voice that no doubt didn't reach all the way to the boys' dormitories. "I don't think I feel very good…" Remus's words faded away as he fell out of the armchair and onto the floor, his fingers faintly scratching the floor in spasms.

"Remus", Jasmine's voice was sharp as she hurried to him and got to her knees in the cramped space between the armchair and the fireplace, "Remus, what's the matter?"

She tried to turn him over, so that he would be lying on his back, but suddenly Remus started jerking without control, his skeleton seemed to crack, and Jasmine herd herself scream before she pressed a hand to her mouth.

"Jasmine, is something wrong?" The door to the boys' dormitories opened, and a tired and bed headed Sirius stood in the doorway. "What are you…" he interrupted himself as he saw Remus on the floor; his shoulders shooting up and his shirt ripping as if he was transforming; and gave out a yell. "Jasmine, get away from there!"

The sixteen-year-old looked up just in time to see Sirius jump the last five steps of the stairs, landing so hard he had to put a hand to the floor no to fall, and then running to them. "Get away!" he cried again, reaching them as Jasmine got to her feet. Fur was now growing rapidly on Remus's back and arms, and Sirius grabbed the young witch by her shoulders, pulling her away. As he quickly backed off, Sirius pushed Jasmine behind himself and spread his arms a little in an attempt to shield her.

Remus was now getting to his feet - all four of them - and he was no longer human. Rising to a grotesque imitation of a man's way to stand, the huge wolf chewed the air with long fangs and then threw his head back and howled.

There was a thud from the upper floor, and Sirius swore as the werewolf moved between them and the portrait.

"Jasmine, get up the stairs", he pushed her in the direction of the girl's dormitories, "run!"

Jasmines heart raced in a mixture of shock and fear as she had to turn her back to the transformed Remus and hurry up the stairs. On the ledge, she couldn't force herself to go inside, but turned around as Sirius slowly backed a few steps with his hands raised, just to have to throw himself to the floor in order to dodge a sudden attack from the werewolf.

"James!" Sirius called as he rolled and lithely got to his feet again. "Prongs! Little furry problem!"

There was the sound of running feet from the other dormitory, and then James stood in the doorway, in only his jeans, pushing the glasses on his nose. Spilling no time on words or questions, he took a few jumps down the stairs, transforming in the middle of one of them into a dark brown stag, who landed gracefully on the floor, making such a sudden noise the werewolf turned in that direction.

James kept stomping and throwing his antlered head as Sirius seemed to shiver and starting to transform himself.

Then, the portrait opened, and in the doorway stood professor McGonagall in her tartan dressing gown.

"What is happening here? I herd some nois…"

"Professor McGonagall, out of the way!" Sirius yelled, interrupting her. Halfway through the transformation, his voice was rough.

Professor McGonagall drew a sharp breath, and then she transformed into the streaky, grey cat the same instant Sirius turned into a huge, black dog. The dog barked to catch the werewolf's attention and lead it away from James, who'd been pushed into a corner and only had his horns between himself and a wielding paw with long claws. Then, professor McGonagall took a jump and landed on the werewolf's back pushing all her claws through the fur and into his spine.

Jasmine was too shocked to even scream or react as she watched the supple cat jump off Remus's back, though the portrait hole and run off through the corridors, the werewolf following. After the werewolf went the stag and the dog, and Jasmine could hear their steps disappearing through the corridors and down the marble stairs.


	2. Chapter 2

"Mr Lupin, wake up

"Mr Lupin, wake up! Wake up, dammit!" Someone was harshly shaking Remus by the shoulders and when he forced his eyelids open, he was surprised to see the face of professor McGonagall hardly discernible in the dusk. She was pale, he noticed, and wisps of her hair had fallen out of the bun.

_Darkness, soft air brushing through over his head and back and the taste of fading life on his tongue._

Remus jerked and lifted his head, his eyes now wide open. He sat up and professor McGonagall fell back so hard, she had to support herself with her hands not to fall to her back.

"I'm sorry, professor", Remus said as he reached out to help her. His voice was faint and gruff, and when he spoke, he felt the taste of blood in his mouth.

_A dog whimpered as bone cracked and splintered between the werewolves fangs. It tried to run, but the maimed leg didn't obey, and it rolled over on its back. The ribcage creaked in protest when the heavy paws landed on it. He felt muscles tight in panic as he bit the dog over its face and throat, trying to rip it open, but then spiky horns were hooked under him and literally threw him away. The stag stood between the dog and the werewolf, antler lowered and directed towards him. But he didn't care. Ducking under the stag's horns, the werewolf buried his claws in its shoulder, ripping the leg open and then aiming for the heart. He was furious now, tried to scratch his way beneath the stag's ribs, until there was a flicker of light on the horizon, and the sun rose. The first sunbeams touched Remus's furred face, just to continue its way up on the heavens, leaving him unconscious. _

All this rushed through Remus's head so quickly; it left him feeling dull and somewhat empty, as if he'd been out the entire day in an autumn storm. His hands slackened and professor McGonagall got to her feet by herself.

He was staring into the air without really seeing it, trying to bring order to these images and feelings that raged through his mind when professor McGonagall called for him again.

"Mr Lupin! Go get madam Pomfrey immediately!"

Now, he finally looked up. On the ground by professor McGonagall lay James. His chest all the way to his ribs was ripped into shreds, and flushed with blood. The right arm lay in an unnatural angle, and he trembled as he drew short breaths.

When Remus turned to the other side, his heart stopped for a second. If it was not for the dark hair and the clothes, he wouldn't have recognised Sirius for all the blood and mud. He had dirt all over, the remainders of his left leg were a mass of mashed flesh and shattered bone, and he lay still. So still.

If it was not for professor McGonagall calling again, her voice now shrill from fear, Remus would've kept on staring and staring on Sirius's scratched and bleeding face, that did not seem to move even the slightest, his lips firmly shut.

"Lupin! Hurry!"

These words seemed to harden something inside Remus. He blinked and then got to his feet, swaying a little but keeping steady enough.

They were in the Dark Forest, and he had to look around for a couple of seconds to orientate himself before he set of in the direction of the school.

As he ran over the uneven ground, feeling branches and leaved whip his face, Remus remembered more and more of the night, as he normally did. The feeling of bone cracking and shattering between his jaws returned, as did the taste of blood and the memory of how exposed ribs felt under his claws.

Then, Remus realised how tired he was. His knees seemed to bend in the middle of every step, and sometimes he lost balance and stumbled several meters. When he finally reached the school, his every muscle was twitching and trembling and he couldn't even bring himself to walk up the stairs to the Hospital Wing.

He crawled and tottered variously his way through the Entrance Hall, and then got almost half the way up the great marble stair before he sunk to the floor, unable to move.

After turning into a werewolf three nights in a row, and then running all the way through the Dark Forest, Remus felt as if his entire body was turning into water, and he couldn't make his limbs obey.

"Mr Lupin?" Remus hardly managed to lift his head at the sound of professor Vector's voice, and when he forced his mouth open, nothing but a desperate panting slipped him.

The professor came down the stairs, and put a motherly hand on his shoulder, then gasped as she saw his dirtied and bloodstained face.

"James", Remus finally panted, "Sirius… in the Forest…" he closed his eyes, trying to get control over his voice. "Madam Pomfrey…" he managed to say and then he felt like he as going to throw up.

"Madam… Do you mean they need help?"

Remus nodded faintly. "Hurry…" Then, the effort to speak made him nauseate, and he leaned back towards the banister, eyes closed.

"They're in the Forest, you say?" It was a good thing professor Vector was so smart.

Remus nodded again and after a second of hesitation that made Remus want to scream at her, professor Vector hurried up the stairs towards the Hospital Wing.

Remus sat in a chair outside the Hospital Wing. He had a blanket wrapped around his shoulders and an untouched cup of tea in his hands. He'd been sitting there, in the same position, for almost eighteen hours, the events of last night running through his mind over and over again.

The look on madam Pomfrey's face as she hurried him out of the Hospital Wing was etched on the inside of his eyelids, so he saw it every time he closed his eyes.

That pale, closed face that just spoke of how shocked and insecure she was about the task that laid in front of her made Remus shrug his shoulders not to shiver or start crying.

He loathed himself for the situation he'd created, and what he'd done to his friends. When a tired and bloodstained professor Vector came out of the Hospital Wing, he'd asked her how James and Sirius were doing. The answer had only been a headshake.

Now, finally, the door opened, and a weary professor McGonagall came out. She was limping a little, but smiled palely at him when he looked up at her, mouth a little open and the question shining in his eyes.

"Mr Potter is going to be fine", she said, "he'll have to stay for a while - how long is undetermined - but he'll make it."

Remus felt how he started to smile, and then he realised what the professor just told him.

"What about Sirius?" He asked, not really knowing if he wanted the answer.

Professor McGonagall went quiet, and she hesitated on the answer for a second.

"He's still struggling. As it is now, he'll survive, but the situation is very unstable, he was merely alive when we brought him here. Pomona has done everything in her power, and for the moment, there are nothing more to do, so you can go in there. Just don't stay too long."

Remus nodded. He felt just like professor McGonagall had slapped him, and then his entire head had gone dull and heavy. A hand squeezed his shoulder, but he merely felt it, and then he turned and walked into the hospital wing.

It was clean, as always, and quiet. Just as Remus walked in, a little watch on the wall turned ten, and he looked through the windows, surprised to see that it was dark.

James stirred in his bed, whimpering softly in his sleep as he unintentionally moved his hurt arm. From the shoulder to his fingertips, there was a huge bandage, and James was awfully pale, but seemed all right except for that.

Remus stretched in order to see Sirius, and he herd himself draw a sharp breath, as if on great distance, when he spotted his friend.

Sirius's leg was, just like James arm, bandaged, but that was not what scared Remus. There was a thin, yet blood stained bandage around his throat as well, reaching up one turn around his head. He had several deep gashes in his face, and just like before, Sirius lay horribly still.

Remus sank to his knees. There was an awful disgust twisting and turning inside of him, as if he'd eaten something alive. He loathed himself; over and over the questions came rushing.

_What kind of monster are you?_

_How can you do something like that?_

_They are supposed to be your friends._

And they were his friends. Remus flicked his eyes to his hands that lay trembling in his lap. They were still red brownish from dried blood, and something sticking under his nails. Around his mouth was the same feeling, and when Remus realised this were the blood and flesh of his friends, he was suddenly overwhelmed by a huge need to throw up.

Somehow managing to suppress that need, he crawled - unable to stand - to the wall and curled up beside it, clutching his arms around his knees.

There was also a need to cry; but it just seemed right to keep that painful bulge in his throat a little longer, in some bizarre way punishing himself for what he'd done.

Without any other sound than James restless stirring and whimpering, the night passed, and Remus didn't even notice himself fall asleep, until madam Pomfrey carefully shook his shoulder the next morning.


	3. Epilouge

It was another two days until James woke up from the drugged sleep madam Pomfrey had put him into

It was another two days until James woke up from the drugged sleep madam Pomfrey had put him into. Although he ensured Remus over and over that there was no problem with what he called "the little incident", Remus had started getting it more and more difficult to fall asleep at nights, and he as waking up two or three times every night, until he finally got up at four or five in the morning.

After five days, Sirius was still unconscious; and almost every day after class, Remus came up to the Hospital Wing to find a sleeping James, and a pale and quiet Jasmine sitting by Sirius's bed. Once or twice, he'd tried talking to her, but the faint, fragile answer he got very time - not more than a few words - got him to stop. It seemed that Jasmine was, if not happy, but satisfied with sitting by Sirius's bed for a few hours, and then quietly leaving.

It was not until the sixth day that Sirius woke up, and Remus was almost happy that it was Jasmine sitting by his bed in that moment, not himself, for wouldn't have managed to look Sirius in the eyes.

Jasmine just felt empty; like there was not even the slightest glimpse of thought or feeling in her mind. The first time she came to the Hospital Wing, she had felt the ground spinning under her feet, and a weary Madam Pomfrey had immediately put her on a chair and wrapped a blanket around her shoulders. Jasmine supposed she was a little shocked, but the name of her condition didn't matter.

Nothing seemed to matter at this moment. Nothing but the desperate hope that Sirius would wake up, or that Madam Pomfrey for sure could tell that he would be completely restored.

It had been six days now, and Jasmine found herself sitting by the sick bed for longer and longer periods of time, sometimes skipping lunch, other times dinner, in order to just sit there and wait.

Remus did the same thing. Mostly, Madam Pomfrey asked some of the house elves to bring him some food, or James would have to nag at him for hours until he left the Hospital Wing in order to get something to eat.

Jasmine didn't blame him, but he must think she did, for each time he talked to her, she herd her own answer being fragile and short. And in return, all the times she tried to speak to him, the words seemed to slip away, and then the look at his face made her loose whatever sentence was left as well.

Jasmine shifted positions on the chair, and managed to pull her feet onto the seat so she could wrap her arms around her knees, leaning a little to the bed not to fall off. Sirius was pale, much paler than what could be healthy. He still had the bandage around his throat, though Madam Pomfrey had stopped making a turn over his head now, and it didn't bleed through any more.

Night was falling, and Jasmine was just considering leaving so Madam Pomfrey wouldn't have to tell her again, when a soft moan from the bed beside her made her freeze.

A little wrinkle had appeared between Sirius's eyebrows, and his lips were shaping words, but he didn't speak them.

Jasmine stood, though she hadn't noticed herself rising from the chair. "Sirius?"

His eyelids flicked, and he opened a pair of slightly misty eyes, that slowly cleared and fixed on her.

For a few moments, he looked at her as if he didn't recognise her, then a trembling smile showed at his lips, and he raised a hand towards her.

"Jas.." His whisper was rough, cracked and Jasmine interrupted him by placing her fingers over his mouth.

"Don't", she said softly, and managed a smile; his hand fell back on the mattress, "Madam.. Madam Pomfrey says you shouldn't speak for a while yet."

He nodded, and under her hand, his lips quit moving. With a strained little breath, Sirius closed his eyes, and kept them closed for so long, Jasmine thought he had gone back to sleep. But when she carefully stroke some wisps of hair out of his face, he smiled, and his hand rose to take hers.

For once, he was the cold one, and Jasmines little hand in his was warm. She smiled at this phenomenon, and without anything to say, she just remained as she were, standing by Sirius's bed, gently caressing the back of his hand with her free one, slowly warming it, until Madam Pomfrey in a determined way said that it was time for Jasmine to leave, and that she wouldn't tell her any more times.


End file.
